


Not A Common Skill

by partypaprika



Category: Saving Face (2004)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 22:49:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17150552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partypaprika/pseuds/partypaprika
Summary: Magic. A month into living together, Wil realizes that Vivian can do magic.





	Not A Common Skill

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LeBibish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeBibish/gifts).



A month into living together, Wil realizes that Vivian can do magic. It’s nothing that would have normally stood out—things get moved around and misplaced all the time. What’s another item or two here or there?

And yes, occasionally, Wil finds a mug that she had been certain was in the bedroom just a few minutes ago, even though Vivian hasn’t moved. Or Vivian will reach for a book on the couch that Wil had been certain wasn’t there a second ago.

But it isn’t until Wil is idly watching Vivian stretch out in their makeshift yoga room and office, previously in use as a guest room, writing some emails on her desk in the corner that she sees a purple foam roller blink into existence. Vivian casually reaches for it, as if it had always been there. But it hadn’t—Wil knows with ever fiber of her being that it hadn’t.

When Wil tries to bring it up at dinner, she just can’t make herself say the words “magic”. She probably just imagined it. Or maybe it was hiding somewhere else in the room and Wil just didn’t see it. That’s what happened, Wil tells herself.

“I am very excited for this salad,” Wil says instead. “But maybe it could have some more real food in it.”

“Just because you exist on a diet of Snickers bars and soft drinks doesn’t mean that I have to support it,” Vivian says.

“Are you sure that this isn’t poison?” Wil says, poking at the salad skeptically. There’s grain of some sort in it. She tries not to grimace.

“Yes, introducing green vegetables into your diet is just the first step in my plan to slowly poison your body by giving it much needed nutrients.”

When Wil still looks skeptical, Vivian picks up a container of feta cheese and sighs, but spoons feta cheese onto Wil’s salad. Wil reluctantly takes a bite and—although she’d never admit it—it’s actually quite good.

Only later, when Vivian has fallen asleep and Wil is still reading through the latest issue of Hopkins Medicine Magazine does Wil realize that there hadn’t been any feta cheese on the table at the start of the meal.

 

 

After that, it’s easier to know that it happens, to know that the things that appear and disappear around their apartment are appearing and disappearing with purpose.

“Viv, have you seen my wallet?” Wil says one morning. “I can’t find it anywhere. Do you think that I left it—god, I hope that I didn’t—do you think I left it at the bar last night?”

Last night, she and Viv had gone out for drinks with Vivian’s dance company and they had gotten exceptionally drunk. Drunk enough that Wil had been more than a little handsy in the cab ride home. God, she hopes she didn’t leave it in the cab. She’s not sure which thought is worse.

Vivian scrunches her face for a second. “I think that I saw it in the room—let me check.” Wil is digging through her jacket for a fifth time when Vivian emerges from the bedroom, wallet proudly in hand.

“Where did you find that?” Wil asks.

“Right on your nightstand,” Vivian says, shrugging her shoulders.

It had most certainly not been on the nightstand. Wil knows because she almost tore their bedroom apart trying to find it. “Oh,” Wil says. “You sure?”

“Yep!” Vivian says and smiles in that way that causes Wil’s legs to go weak.

“Great, good,” Wil says and then when Vivian steps in, she runs her fingers up Wil’s arm until she reaches Wil’s shoulder. She brings her hand up to cup Wil’s cheek and then she kisses Wil. Immediately all thoughts of the wallet are forgotten.

 

The magic or non-magic, whatever it may be, eventually takes a backseat to realities of life. Living with someone is an adjustment, as much as it is for Vivian and Wil as it is for Wil’s mother. The first time that Wil’s mother and Yu, along with Wil’s baby sister, Emilia, come over for dinner, Wil and Vivian both spend the entire day getting the apartment ready and preparing food.

Vivian is just as nervous is, even though Wil’s assured her at least a hundred times that her mother loves Vivian. With respect to Wil, Wil’s mother’s feelings are far more variable, but a beautiful dancer daughter-in-law, that she’s over the moon for.

Wil’s manage to cobble together steamed cod and a tofu stir-fry, while Viv prepared broccoli. There’s plenty of rice and Wil is doing a mental check of the meal when she freezes. “Wait,” Wil says. “Do we have anything for dessert?”

Viv smiles and opens up the freezer. She pulls out both vanilla and chocolate ice cream. “Do you think that they’ll forgive us if we have ice cream?”

Maybe she had ice cream in there—maybe she didn’t. But it doesn’t really matter because Wil is smiling in relief. “She’ll be horribly disappointed and then eat it anyways.”

 

Dinner goes better than expected. It’s nice to see Wil’s mother with someone who clearly worships her. She’s been alone for so much of her life and even though she’ll always have Wil, it’s good to have someone else too.

“Ma, how’s Emilia doing?” Wil asks. Emilia was sleeping when they arrived and has been left to sleep in her car seat in Wil and Vivian’s room. She’s cute enough for a baby. Wil’s looking forward to when she’s old enough to have conversations with—even if it’s just about the ABCs or 123s. Vivian already decided that Emilia will be her protégé.

“Good, good,” Wil’s mother says. “She has your smarts. Hopefully she will grow up to be like her big sister.”

Unspoken between them is the years where Wil and her mother pretended that Wil was something different than herself. She’s lived without her mother’s support in her love life for most of her life. Just having her support now seems unthinkable from a year ago. On top of that, approval of Wil and her choices is an amazing gift that Wil hadn’t ever thought to have received

After dinner, as the four of them laugh over dessert, Wil’s mother disapproving and yet still accepting a small bowl of ice cream, Wil thinks that she never could have thought she’d be so happy.

 

Once Wil’s mother and Yu head back home, Wil turns to Vivian as they clean up. “Thank you for everything,” she says.

“Of course,” Vivian says and she kisses Wil gently before she goes back to the dishes.

“Where did you manage to find that ice cream?” Wil asks. “You saved the day.”

“Magic,” Vivian says and there’s a twinkle in her eye. Wil can’t help but agree.


End file.
